Machine for making window envelope blanks



M e, 1924,, m ww S. FURMAN MACHINE FOR MAKING WINDOW ENVELQPE BLANKSOriginal Filed Aug. 24, 1918 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 S. FURMAN MACHINE FORMAKING WINDOW E NVELOPE BLANKS Original Fil ed Aug. 24, 1918 sSheets-Sheet 2 5111mm for MACHINE FOR MAKING WINDOW ENVELOPE BLANKS0ri%inal Filed Aug. 24, 1918 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Patented May 6, 1924.

SAMUEL TUBMAN, O'F WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIQ'NQR '10 UNITED)STATES ENVELOPE COMPANY, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, A COEPORATION FMAINE.

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Original application filed August 24, 1918, Serial No. 251,301. Dividedand this application filed August 9, 1920. Serial Nb, 402,408.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, SAMUEL FURMAN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Worcester, in the county of Worcester and Commonwealth ofMassachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in a Machinefor Making Window Envelope, Blanks, of which the following, togetherwith the accompanying drawings, is a specification.

The present invention relates to improvements in machines for makingwindow envelope blanks, sometimes known as atch ing machines. In suchmachines t e envelope blanks, having previously cut window openingstherein are each subjected to a patching operation, which consists inadhesively applyin a strip or patch of trans parent paper to t e insideface of the blank, in order to cover the window opening therein. Theapertured blanks thus patched are thereupon discharged from the machine,and are collected or stacked in suitable form for the subsequentoperation thereon of folding instrumentalities contained in the same orin another machine, as the case may be.

The present application is a division of my prior copending applicationserial number 251,301 filed August 24, 1918, which has since maturedinto Letters Patent No.

1,428,429, dated September 5, 1922; the invention relates to the stackcontrolling and blank feeding mechanisms that are shown and described,but not claimed in said prior application. The various features of theinvention will be made apparent as the description proceeds, referencebeing had in this connection to the accompanying drawings, in which-Fig. 1 is a front view of a machine constructed in accordance with theinvention.-

Fig. 2 is a side view of the machine.

Fig. 3 is a central sectional view of the machine.

Like reference characters. refer to like parts in the different figures.

The mechanism is supported and carried by and between a pair oflongitudinal side frames 1, 1, which provide journals for a main drivingshaft 2, the latter being actuated by a belt or other driving device,

not shown, from asuitable source of power. The rotation of shaft 2is-communicated by gearing 3 to a shaft 4, which carries a plurality ofdisks 5 that serve for the convey-v ance of successive blanks intoposition for the adhesive application of patches thereto. To this end,the stack of blanks 6 is supported on a suitable adjustable table 7,with the uppermost blank of the stack in position to be operated upon bya device for separating said uppermost blank from the remainder of thestack and presenting it to the disks 5, 5.

Said device, in the present instance, is shown as an oscillating suctionpickup 8, which is carried by a rock shaft 9 and has a suitable flexibleconnection 10 with the usual vacuum producing and controlling devices,not shown, that are common in mechanisms of this class. The rock shaft 9has secured thereto an upwardly extending arm 11, Fig. 2, which carrieson its free end a roll 12 that is adapted to engage a cam 13 on theshaft 41-. Another arm 14, extending forwardly from said rock shaft 9,has secured thereto a spring 15, which normally holds the roll 12against the cam 13. The oscillations of rock shaft 9, under theinfluence of cam 13, causes the suction pickup 8 to descend into contactwith the uppermost blank on table 7 as shown in Fig. 3, and at this timea suction is exerted through the pickup device so as to seize said blankand separate it from the remainder of the 8 stack. Thereafter, the cam13 causes the pickup to rock upwardly so as to carry the edge of theblank into a position to be seized by a gripping device on one of thedisks 5, as hereinafter described.

The arm 14 oscillates between a pair of adjustable stops or set screws16, 16' carried by a slidable plate 17 which is adapted to have an upand down movement limited by the travel of a slot 18 therein with respect to a fixed screw or pin 19 carried b the framework. The lower endof plate 1 has pivoted thereto at 20 a pawl 21, which is presseddownwardly by a spring 22. The tooth 23 at the free end of said pawl isthus held in engagement with the teeth of a ratchet wheel 24, which iscarried by a shaft 55 said rod 42, the latter bein 25 that is journalledbetween the sideframes 1, 1 of the framework and below the table 7.Adjacent the pawl 21 is a second pawl- 26, having a fixed pivot 27, andhaving its 5 tooth 28 also adapted to engage the teeth of ratchet wheel24. The pawl 26 is normally held in engagement with the ratchet .wheel24 by means of a spring 29, which is secured to an extension 30 of saidpawl on the other side of its fixed pivot 27, and

the pawl 26 thus normally operates as a holding pawl, adapted to retainthe wheel 24 and shaft 25 in the position to which they are moved by theupward movement of pawl 21, during the interval that said' pawl ismoving downwardly with the plate 17, preparatory its next successiveoperative stroke.

The shaft carries a pair of spur pin- 2 ions 31, 31 near the endsthereof, and these pinions are in mesh with racks 32, 32 depending fromthe table 7, which, as shown 1n Fig. 1, is adapted to move vertically onsuitable guides or rods 33 carried upon the 25 fixed framework. It willthus been seen that the rotation of shaft 4 is transmitted, through thereci rocating plate 17 and pawl and ratchet mec ianism above described,to elevate the table 7 by a step by step movement in the normaloperation of the machine, and thereby to maintain the stack of blanksonvsaid table always in position to be operated upon by the suctionpickup 8, notwithstanding the continuous removal of blanks from the topof said stack. The extension 30 of holding pawl 26 carries a pin 34which is received within an elongated slot 35 of an upwardly projectinglink 36. The link 36 is pivotally secured at its upper end, at 37, to alever arm 38 which is pivoted at 39 to a stationary cross bar 40 of thefixed framework. The lever arm 38 has a handle 41 at its free end whichis employed in rocking it about its pivotal axis 39, for impartingmovement to the pawl 26 through the link 36. Extending at right anglesto the lever arm 38 is a sliding latch rod 42, which has an inclinedlower edge 43 cooperating with a shoulder 44 on the upper edge of leverarm 38 and near the free parts shown in Fig. 2, the knob 48 has beenpressed inwardly, thereby causing the free end of lever arm 38 to beelevated, under the influence of a spring 49, since the outer end of theinclined edge 43 is, under these conditions, in contact with theshoulder 44.

-inoperative wit Int aeeaoeo This position of the parts holds the pawl26 in operative relation to the ratchet'wheel 24, and is thus theoperative osition for the intermittent elevation of be ortable 7 asabove described.

When the handle 41 is seized by the operator, and the lever arm 38 sWundownwardly, the latch rod 42, under the influence of spring 47 movesoutwardly, and owing to the incline of the edge 43, locks the said leverarm 38 in its depressed position. In this depressed position, the pawl26 is held respect to the ratchet wheel 24, so that there is nothing torevent the reverse rotation of shaft 25 which takes place owing to thegravity descent of bed 7 from the position to which it has beenelevated. is connection it is to be noted that the movement of pawl 26into its inoperative position automatically prevents further operationof pawl 21, since the latter, disposed directly above the former, iscarried out of engagement with the Wheel 24 by the contact of theholding pawl against its lower edge. It will thus be seen that thefeeding of blanks from the table 7 can be discontinued at will by theoperator merely by depressing the handle 41, and furthermore, that afterthis is done, the machine will not begin to feed blanks again until theknob 48 is pressed inwardly, so as to cause the parts to again resumethe positions illustrated in Fig. 2.

The extension 50 of the lever arm 38, on the other side of its pivotalaxis 39, lies in the vertical path of a member 51, pivotally secured tothe bed? at 52 and resting, as shown in Fig. 1, against a pin 53 carriedby said bed. In the operation of the machine, as the height of the stackof blanks on bed 7 is gradually decreased, said bed is correspondinglyelevated, and when there are only a few blanks left on the bed 7, therewould be danger in further elevation owing to the approach to- .Ward bed7 of a memberc6, which rests by gravity onthestack of blanks and extendsinto the opening provided by the windows thereof. In other words, thismember 6 which is used to maintain the blanks of the stack in truealinement, and also to prevent the separation from the stack of morethan one blank at one time, must, for the performance of its functions.be supported solely by the stack and therefore the stack must not beallowed to get so low that the bottom '50 of said member 6' will strikethe support or bed 7. To prevent the supply of blanks from running solow as to bring about the above condition, the member 51 is so disposedas to make forcible contact with the extension 50 at a predeterminedpoint in the elevation of the bed when the height of the stack has beendecreased to a safe limit, and this forcible contact rocks the lever arm38 downwardly, and thereby automatically causes the gravity descent ofthe bed and the discontinuance of the blank feed. The operator isthereby warned to replenish the stack of blanks'on the bed 7, andthereafter he can cause a resumption of the blank feed simply by pushingin the knob 48 as above described.

The suction pickup 8 is, .as above described, movable in unison with thearm 14 about the same pivotal axis. As a result of this construction allpossibility of too eat an elevation of the table 7 and stack of blanksis eliminated; that is to say, the rotation of shaft 25 will always beautomatically discontinued when the stack is high enough to be reachedby the down stroke of the pickup. This is true for the reason that thetop of the stack of blanks acts as a limit to the downward movement ofsuction pickup 8, as effected by the low portion of cam 13. If the topof the stack is so high as to prevent the full downward movement of thepickup, this will also prevent the contact of arm 14 with the lower stop16', andhence will prevent the operative reciprocation of plate 17 untilenough blanks have been picked off to allow the full stroke of thepickup.

Each blank as seized by the suction pickup 8 has its adjacent edgepresented to a gripping device, preferably carried by the mi dle disk 5on shaft 4. Said disk 5 1s preferably recessed on its periphery, asindicated at 54, Fig. 4, and has journalled eccentrically therein ashaft which extends there through and through the other disks 5, 5toward one side of the machine, and carries on its end an arm 56 havinga roller 57 thereon adapted to contact with an interior face cam 58. Theshaft 55 is surrounded by a spring 59 which has one end .securedthereto, and the other end secured to an arm 60 which rotates in unisonwith said disk 5 and shaft 4, so that said spring 59 always tends toreturn the shaft 55 to its normal position after the rocking of saidshaft by the contact of roller 57 with cam 58. The cam 58 is so set withrespect to the rotation of shaft 4 as to sharply rock said shaft 55 justas a blank is presented by suction pickup 8 to the disk 5, therebycausing the pinching of the edge of said blank by a gripper member 61carried by shaft 55 and operating in the recess 54. The gripper member61 and disk 5 thus draw the blank from beneath the pickup 8, whosesuction may be automatically discontinued at the proper moment torelease the blank, and then resumed for the seizure of the nextsucceeding blank by mechanism well known in the art. which forms no partof the present invention For accomplishing a rapid movement of gripper61 in sai ng and re easing he edge a cam 61 on shaft 2. A spring 61"holds the roll 60' in contact with cam 61', which is so timed as tooscillate the cam 58 at the proper period to accelleratethe opening andclosing movements of gripper 61.

Each blank thus seized by the gripper 61 is carried by the disks 5 intoa position above the shaft 4, and at this point the gripper 61 isreleased by the reverse rotation of shaft 55 under the influence ofspring 59 and cam 58, as will be well understood.

Conincident with this release of the blank,

its edge passes into the bite of disks 62 cooperating with the'disks 5to advance the blank rearwardly of the machine in the plane of itshorizontal position. The disks 62 are carried on a shaft 63 which isdriven by suitable gearing, not shown, from the shaft 4. From this pointrearward in the machine. the travel of each blank is in the plane of itshorizontal position, the inner face of the blank being 11 permost, so asto permit the application 0 a band of adhesive around the margin of thewindow opening in the blank and the subsequent securingof a patch tocover said opening;

The mechanism for performing these last named functions is fullydescribed and claimed in my aforesaid copending application, and neednot be herein referred to.

I claim,

1. In a machine of the class described, a

support, operable by the swinging of said member, in combination withmeans for locking said elevating mechanism ininoperative position torender it non-responsive to the swinging of said member, and adepressible latch for releasing said locking means. 1'

3. In a machine of the class described, a

support 'for a stack of apertured blanks, i

wasp

. a, m nesting by gravity on said stack and means operable by thedescent of said and disposed in the recess formed by vthe member,through successive blank with- I V :oigistenn apertures, a swingingvmember drawals, into proximity to said support, for

a tad or contact with the top of said discontinuing the operation ofsaid elevat- I5 stac to withdraw successive blanks thereing mechanism. vi

from, alevatin mechanism for said support, 1

operable by t a swinging of said member, I SAMUEL FURMAN.

